Seismic Sense
by Addster
Summary: It wasn't always a gift...


**AN: Kay wow, how long has it been?! Ain't no thang. This is a really quick blip so please if it sucks let me know so I can maybe (haha fingers crossed) fix it, so yeah. Please enjoy!**

* * *

Silence was something of a delicacy in the Bei Fong home. As far back as she could remember, Lin had lived in noise. It wasn't the noise you heard with your ears, but the noise the Bei Fong women learned to hear with their feet. Ever since her mother had adamantly installed the power in her, Lin hadn't slept the same. Even though she was off the ground in her bed, the wood frame was a conductor of the symphony any normal person was ignorant of. It echoed down the hall and vibrated under the door until the young earth bender could feel in gently hum in her bed.

This was never a nuisance, though, and when she was a very young girl she thought it was her mother's way of singing her a lullaby. Sending her song through the earth to little Lin's ears.

As she grew Lin began manipulating her gift in mischievous ways. Near her birthday, she would creep down the hall late at night while her uncle Sokka and her mother discussed what was on the plate for her upcoming date.

"I think she's old enough for a nice piece of jewelry," Sokka started. Lin smiled as she heard her mother snort.

"Like she'll wear it. I had a hard enough time keeping clothes on her, you think she'll keep on a necklace?"

Her face flushed and she buried her face in her palms. From the thrumming in her feet her uncle Sokka was feeling the same.

"I don't expect her to wear it all the time, but for when she attends…social events, she might want something to go with her outfit."

"You sound like Sugar Queen."

When Lin joined the Police Force, her seismic sense became an invaluable lie detector. When she had a perp in the chair, all she had to do was ask a calm and collected question, easy enough, and listen. Every once in a while she would feel a violent _thump-thump _under her feet and she had to try and quell the smile behind her lips.

A majority of her arrests amounted to this wonderful skill.

But what especially made her gift a most _valuable_ possession was its ability to break Lin's heart.

Something she had since she was very small, an ability that had saved her life and the lives of others on many occasions, had picked up on something that would change her life for the worse.

"I love you Tenzin," Lin smiled as she buried her weary head in the nape of her air bender's neck. It had been a horrible week, what with the first lieutenant being rushed to the healers after being blown up by the newly budding Triple Threat Triad and Lin having to take his place and in turn his paperwork. Her back ached from sitting hunched over his desk and her left hand was cramped from holding a pen for too long a time.

All she wanted was a warm cup of tea and to lay in bed with Tenzin.

But of course, there was something else in store for her.

"I know you do Lin, and that's what I wanted to see you about."

Lin pulled her arms down from around his neck and looked him straight in his blue eyes. Tenzin had gotten so handsome since the days of their pudgy baby faces and toothless grins; his face a finely sculptured mask of beauty and sophistication and his body toned by training and adulthood.

He looked down on her (he had gotten tall too) with his hands on her shoulders and his grip firm, and he chewed on his lip in an indecisive manner, something extremely uncommon in the always-resolute councilman. A flush of concern stung Lin's heart as she took one step back and dug her toes into her feet.

"What's the matter?"

Tenzin hesitated as he let a slow breath out of his mouth and closed his eyes.

"I've begun to notice that lately, for a while now actually, we've been growing apart. And that's fine that you want to do your own things and work is always a priority for you, but…"

"But what? Don't make me hang on every word Tenzin, just say it."

Her tone was serious but Lin wasn't able to keep the nervous smile from slipping across her face, hoping it would diffuse the sad look on her lovers face.

And that's when she felt it.

Her toes uncurled from the soles of her feet and rooted to the floor like tree trunks, listening to the beat radiating from Tenzin's body.

He was calm.

"I think we should see other people."

* * *

**And ouch, I apologize for that.**


End file.
